Something Fresh: (Blandings Castle)

Something Fresh has ratings and reviews. Apatt said: “Ashe's first impression of Beach, the butler, was one of tension. Other people, confronte.
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At the end of Summer Lightning , Galahad Threepwood starts telling the story, but the book ends before we would find out what it's about. In Pigs Have Wings , when Wellbeloved realises that Binstead has fed slimming tonic to the wrong pig. A regularly-appearing plot development, to the point where Wodehouse himself had his own names for all the character tropes involved. The "parent" was always one of Lord Emsworth's governess sisters, and the resolution almost invariably ended with the Hon.

Galahad Threepwood or sometimes Uncle Fred blackmailing said sister into letting the marriage through, generally using an element of the B-plot. Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Makes adapting Wodehouse's work to TV or film no easy task. Returning the Wedding Ring: For Fiery Redhead Sandy Callender, merely returning the ring wasn't enough: You may have noticed the slight abrasion on my left cheek.

Baxter's false suspicions often lead him in the right direction. Lord Emsworth's secretary, "The Efficient Baxter", has them. In contrast to Jeeves ' elaborately plotted fixes, the Blandings invaders start here and go from there. It's common for Uncle Fred to come up with his ultimate solution while resting in his hammock at Blandings.

The Duke of Dunstable frequently writes these to the Times or the government. Talks Like a Simile: Comedic similes are a staple of Wodehouse's writing. A particular good one comes when the narrator describes the silent calm at the castle being shattered "with a sound like G. Chesterton falling on a tin roof. Summer Lightning , Heavy Weather , and more. Not only is he the youngest son and therefore gratuitous , he tends to pile up debts and have to be exiled to Blandings, where he sulks around and longs to be back in London.

Lord Emsworth can't stand him and would do anything to get him off his hands. Lord Emsworth's sons, particularly Freddie Threepwood, are rather air-headed. As is Emsworth himself, really. What Gally usually has to resort to. Blandings is host to one of these about twice a week. The Blandings TV series provides examples of: Having a Gay Old Time: The show quite gleefully invokes period-accurate terms that now sound inappropriate. Most prominently, Freddie takes any chance to talk about his club, "The Pink Pussy," sometimes shortened to "The Pussy.

Something Fresh is also available as an Audible. I like his other stuff better than Jeeves. One person found this helpful 2 people found this helpful. Wodehouse remains unchallenged in genre of humour, four generations of writers have come and gone and yet hardly anyone has been able to come anywhere near this literary genius. Each of the words written by Wodehouse are worth its weight in gold, his inimitable style, his choice of words and his comical situations are a work of unsurpassable art.

One person found this helpful. Once you get into this story you are in for it! If laughter does good like a medicine, this book is a drugstore! Read this with my husband and shared the laughing till you can't see together. What a great read. Audio CD Verified Purchase. This is a fun audio book - the narrator is very good and differentiated the different characters for the listener. The plot was entertaining and the writing style was humorous. A great representation of PG Wodehouse's writing. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it. I genuinely have never seen a published book with as many typos as this one - love the book, but this publishing company is clearly a very budget operation, shame it reflects badly on such a wonderful author.

Humorous story, full of twists and turns. Fun characters with surprises along the way.


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The audio book helped while away the hours of a long drive. I do wish Wodehouse's idle, rich, single gentlemen had a bit more spunk and backbone. See all 36 reviews. Most recent customer reviews. Published 8 months ago.

Published 1 year ago. Published on July 25, Published on June 28, Published on November 11, Published on May 29, Customers who bought this item also bought. Uncle Fred in the Springtime. Full Moon Blandings Castle. There's a problem loading this menu right now. A betrothal, a house party, a stolen artifact, and several attempts to break up young lovers and restore the artifact all add to the fun.

The absolute equal in literature of the 'Marx Brothers' in film. The first of the Blanding Castle series. The absent minded Earl, Freddie the second son and a complete sap. Throw in an American millionaire with bad digestion, a daughter betrothed to Freddie and you have a great farce. The two worlds of the upstairs and downstairs are hilarious with both having that crazy British class distinction.

The setting of Blanding castle and the scarab farce is hilarious. I enjoyed how Ashe wooed Joan and I look forward to reading the next installment.

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This review is for this audiobook edition only. For my thoughts on the book, see my Kindle edition. I like to start at the beginning of any series, so I was grateful my library had this, the first Blandings novel. I love Jeeves and Wooster and own several books collected over the years, so decided to expand my Wodehouse repertoire, as it were! This was eventually fun, but got off to a slow start for me.

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We first meet a charming couple scraping by, separately, in a shoddy London boarding house by writing pulp fiction for the same publisher. They meet cute and through a series of mishaps, end up I like to start at the beginning of any series, so I was grateful my library had this, the first Blandings novel. They meet cute and through a series of mishaps, end up playing a lady's maid and valet at Blandings Castle, where Wodehouse's usual hilarious misunderstandings, imposters, young love in bloom and dippy aristocrats take center stage.

Of course it's silly and outlandish but all good fun! I will seek out more Blandings books and look forward to future visits with Lord Emsworth and the Hon Freddie Threepwood - I'm sure the books will be fun, even if I am a diehard Jeeves and Wooster fan for now! View all 7 comments. Aug 20, Madhulika Liddle rated it it was amazing. The none-too-nimble-minded Freddie Threepwood is engaged to marry Aline Peters, daughter of an American multi-millionaire. Lord Emsworth being what he is, he guesses Mr Peters has gifted him the scarab for the little museum at Blandings Castl The none-too-nimble-minded Freddie Threepwood is engaged to marry Aline Peters, daughter of an American multi-millionaire.

Mr Peters, though, comes to the conclusion that Lord Emsworth is a smooth-fingered thief. Mr Peters can think of only one solution: Sep 13, Sandeep rated it really liked it.

Something Fresh (Blandings Castle, #1) by P.G. Wodehouse

The best thing about this book like Jeeves is that its the first book of a long series so yeah im in for a never ending comical treat. My introduction to the world of Blandings Castle finally! Almost all the characters except the group of maids and valets were interesting and had a touch of eccentricity enough to tickle your funny bone.

I thought there was a change of tone in writing compared to the first wodehouse book I read which was My Man, Jeeves but the writing was solid with lots of q The best thing about this book like Jeeves is that its the first book of a long series so yeah im in for a never ending comical treat. I thought there was a change of tone in writing compared to the first wodehouse book I read which was My Man, Jeeves but the writing was solid with lots of quotable lines and still manage to exercise your mouth with funny situations described in the book and mental thoughts of the characters.

Only thing I disliked was the unwanted hierarchy of servants described and their conversations. Nevertheless there were lot of funny scenes and best was the one with Ashe, Emerson and Baxter meeting below the stairs haha! A must read book and great author to read that will magically make u chuckle and smile in this chaotic and stressful life. This first book in the Blandings castle series is a scream! If you like Wodehouse's style then this is a must-read. View all 4 comments. Most other people must be experiencing something like this when they read Wodehouse. My opinions of twenty-odd years ago aren't much changed, it seems: Just took me an inordinately long time to get round to more.

So it's not that I can't quite warm to Wodehouse, it's that I can't q [4.

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Given how many friends like Wodehouse, it's nice to feel clubbable in one sense rather than the other. Somewhere or other, there will still be people I'd generally like saying "I wouldn't trust anyone who didn't love Jeeves and Wooster" and it does seem, in England at least, like a significant marker of character but as GR has reminded me repeatedly, even with those who most closely share our tastes, there are always major differences of opinion over a handful of favourites.

It's something to do with trust: The nearest thing to a Jeeves figure in Something Fresh is The Efficient Baxter, who is more or less the adversary of our heroes, and he, unlike Bertie's butler, succumbs to normal human frailties; the Nietzschean concept of the Superman is alluded to more than once around a minor character, Emerson - but no-one is, in the end, shown to be one in the colloquial sense. All are fallible and the more likeable for it. The audience identification character is a widely derided creation among my friends, but regardless there are two wonderful examples here, low-earning, plucky young people of middle-class upbringing whose unorthodox attempts to earn money land them in an adventure pretending to be a valet and maid visiting Blandings.

If only the ending had been tweaked a little, and there were more books about adventuress-on-a-budget Joan Valentine, I would love to read them She and Ashe Marson - as well as plenty of page time given to the servants, and a surprising wisdom about the difficulties of the non-rich make this book more inclusive than Wodehouse's reputation for writing about aristocrats might suggest.

He has a good natured way of acknowledging that bigger problems than those of his characters exist in the world, and that his books are escapism. He was as completely happy as only a fluffy-minded old man with excellent health and a large income can be. Other people worried about all sorts of things — strikes, wars, suffragettes, diminishing birth-rates, the growing materialism of the age, and a score of similar subjects.

Lord Emsworth never worried. Nature had equipped him with a mind so admirably constructed for withstanding the disagreeablenesses of life that, if an unpleasant thought entered it, it passed out again a moment later He was possibly as nearly contented as a human being can be in this century of alarms and excursions. Her eyes were eyes that looked straight and challenged It is the compensation which Life gives to those whom it has handled roughly that they shall be able to regard with a certain contempt the small troubles of the sheltered Life, at that moment, had seemed to stretch before her like a dusty, weary road, without hope.

She was sick of fighting. She wanted money and ease and a surcease from this perpetual race with the weekly bills. If you ever had days of scraping around taking a motley variety of jobs, and meeting interesting flotsam and jetsam of humanity along the way, Joan and Ashe will surely make you strangely nostalgic for them.

There have always been some people like this I love the phrase there is a Free Masonry among those who live in large cities on small earnings - I know the sort of people he means, and - with a handful of notable exceptions - they are usually more interesting than those who went into Proper Jobs straight out of university or school and stayed in them for years.

These pres twentysomethings seem closer to the typical circumstances of post-crash millenials than to the post-war job for life generation. A handful of other points I found fascinating: I couldn't believe she wasn't written at least 50 years later than she was, probably more. These editions haven't been edited, have they? She isn't even presented as an exception the way a lot of historical novelists would: These unworthy emotions did not last long. Whatever his other shortcomings, Ashe possessed a just mind.

Feminism in Wodehouse - not something I've heard spoken of as a topic, but which a probably exists somewhere as an academic paper, and b is partly responsible for his enduring popularity. It was with the phrase "a scooper-up of random scarabs" that I first felt the writing was getting into its stride and becoming Wodehouse as I hear him spoken of, and that this was going to be an excellent book. Sure enough, plenty similar followed, as well as some wonderful farce that, for me at least, was all fun and no cringing.

I sometimes have too much sympathy for characters one isn't meant to, which makes it too intense and not funny enough - I've always had this problem with Fawlty Towers. The usage of words like 'fluffy' and 'random' also made it feel oddly contemporary. The benignity of the authorial voice is just perfect: I can just imagine opening one having arrived somewhere, seeing that and bursting into fits of giggles.

Though Blandford was more serious a potential problem than Hon Freddie, as he was the eldest, not a younger son. The series showed that a Duke or Earl today essentially needs to be CEO of a tourism and events business - which Emsworth wouldn't have been able to do, yet whilst Blandings is not open to the public Baxter is a sort of regent, handling complex matters in his stead; there was still a fair bit to do, though not as much.

Things have changed, yet not. Curious about the lowish review numbers for even the most popular Wodehouses on Goodreads, as compared with other books which far fewer people I know off this site have read I had a look at Amazon uk sales rankings for a few PGWs, which it turns out - as I suspected - are far higher than those for plenty of works that get lots of attention on Goodreads.

There are particular types of big-on-Goodreads book across various genres and reader constituencies; likewise others which are quite popular in countries outside the US and which have very few posts on here. Wodehouse appears to be one of those authors who's still very widely read, yet proportionally less catalogued and reviewed on GR, albeit not so much as is the case for newer fictional and factual works with local [non-US] popularity. It is a jumble, but I find myself not caring.

The first of this series, Something Fresh , started out in a rather rough and disorderly way; I have to admit that I repeatedly missed Wooster and his gentleman's gentleman and the smooth perfection found in the many tellings of their adventures. However, the story eventually picked up, and—whi "Perhaps the greatest hardship in being an invalid is the fact that people come and see you and keep your spirits up.

However, the story eventually picked up, and—while it never quite reached the highest heights—it finished in a more familiar and Wodehouse-worthy manner. Ashe Marson is a hack writer of detective fiction and bored to death with his job. He meets Joan Valentine, another hack writer who hates her job. Joan has worked as an actress, a lady's maid and any other work she can get. She encourages Ashe to find something new. Peters, a brash American businessman is about to marry his only daughter Aline to the Hon. Freddie is terrified a past indiscretion will come to light and caus Ashe Marson is a hack writer of detective fiction and bored to death with his job.

Freddie is terrified a past indiscretion will come to light and cause a scandal. Freddie needs this marriage for his father has cut off his allowance. Freddie hires the seedy R. Jones to help her out of his predicament. Peters discovers his most valuable scarab is missing from his collection, his knows Lord Emsworth took it. The situation is tricky since the two men will soon be related. He takes his anger out on Aline who turns to her old school mate Joan for comfort and advice. Joan proposes she pose as Aline's lady's maid in order to steal the scarab back.

Peters is sure to offer an aware. He advertises for a "Young Man of Good Appearance who is poor and reckless, to undertake delicate and dangerous enterprise. He refuses to allow Peters to bully him. Ashe knows he can get the scarab back but he hasn't counted on Joan, who is equally confident. Both of the would-be -thieves have to get past the Efficient Baxter, secretary to Lord Emsworth.

The situation becomes increasingly complicated. On the romance side, the bride-to-be is miserable and her former beau, a policeman, is determined to win her hand in marriage. Ashe discovers he's madly in love with Joan and winning the reward is more important than ever. This is an early P. Wodehouse novel set solely in the English countryside.

It deals with class and gender issues in a humorous plot. The plot is slow to take off. The beginning is formulaic and slow. I kept falling asleep and didn't really care to keep reading. After that, a twist in the plot kept me reading until the end. The finale needed a few more pages to flesh out the story. Some of the action appears off page. Joan is my favorite character. She's a feminist who believes women can do anything men can do and do it better. She's determined to be independent and strong. She isn't interested in chivalry and she pities Aline for not being able to stand on her own.

Ashe isn't a very well developed character. He's kind of bland, in my opinion. He's a modern man in terms of health and fitness but also old-fashioned in terms of his attitude towards women and career outlook. His relationship with Joan takes a back seat to the mystery. The romance is very subtle. Ashe and Joan have some witty dialogue but they don't spend much time together. I wanted a bit more connection between them.

The secondary characters really shine. The butler with his constant health complaints made me giggle, as did the absentminded Lord Emsworth. He's not your typical English Lord! His dialogue is amusing, especially his thoughts. His actions during the screwball scene made me laugh out loud. Freddie is a typical young Englishman. He's not very bright and things just happen to him. Any time he tries to take action, something happens to prevent his plan from happening. He's sympathetic for all his faults.

Lord Emsworth can't be easy to live with.

Something Fresh (blandings Castle) Wodehouse P G 0099513781

Peters is rather a stereotypical brash businessman. Like other Wodhouse characters, he's overweight and unhealthy which showcases Wodehouse's belief in diet and exercise and clean, healthy living. Peters tries to be bold but like Freddie, circumstances remove control from his hands. It's not easy for Peters not to be in control but it makes the story funnier and also makes a more sympathetic character.

Aline is my least favorite character.